Halloween

I wanted to get started carving pumpkins which meant Lilly was going to participate. She was all into the idea - she kept saying "I want carve pumpkin!" So she helped me. She had a good time scooping out the seeds and pulp and then tried to put them back inside the pumpkin. Because she was helping me, I did a very simple face for her pumpkin. Lilly wanted to carve so I let her put her hand on the saw as I was carving. She thought it was neat when the carved piece of pumpkins would pop out - she wanted to put the piece back in. Once the carving was done I told her we would put a candle in the pumpkin to light it up. She got very excited to see that there was "firer" in the pumpkin. The whole experience went much smoother than I thought it would!




For Halloween this year, Lilly was a fancy mouse. She visited Daddy at his office (he dressed up as a blind referee) and that night we went to North Hills for some music and trick-or-treating. Lilly said trick-or-treat at the first store but after that she refused to carry her Halloween bag and would not say trick-or-treat so we ended that after three stores. Lilly had more fun playing with toys.
She did get to give the Chik-Fil-A cow a high-five from the safety of Daddy's arms.


In keeping with tradition (that being we went there last year), we headed over to the Governor's Mansion for some more trick-or-treating.
I must say last year was better only because daylight savings time had already happened so it was dark when we got there. At 6:00pm last night, it was still daylight. Lilly was a bit spooked by the scary costumes that lined the sidewalk to the front of the house. Thankfully the Texas Chainsaw Man did not turn on his chainsaw as we passed by and all the ghouls and goblins did not try to touch Lilly. Daddy did have to tell one skeleton "No" when he tried to come near us and for the car ride home and even this morning Lilly would say "No more skeleton."


The first lady Mary Easley handing out the candy

looking at bats flying overhead
When we got home Lilly wanted to see the pumpkins. We had to wait until after dinner for Lilly to see the pumpkins lit up with the "firers" in them.



With the excitement and running around we did, Lilly was still in bed by 7:30 pm!

KinderMusik in Costumes

For today's Kindermusik class, the kids wore their Halloween costumes. It was a very small class today - I guess the rainy weather kept some people home.

Here are a few pictures of Lilly in her Fancy Mouse costume. She actually wore the costume for the entire class!






Some video:

State Fair

As usual we headed over to the fairgrounds for the annual NC State Fair. We thought Monday would be a slow day attendance-wise so Joe took that day off. We ran into one of Joe's Aunts and his cousins and her two daughters. It was however NOT fair weather - jeans and sweatshirts should be worm to the fair not shorts and t-shirts. Lilly did wear at sweatshirt for the morning - we were there right at 9:00 am. It was nice that early with the vendors still setting up and Lilly had the chance to run around before the crowds came.

We hunted all over to find the petting zoo - it was not where the map said it was but it was worthwhile once we got there. Lilly fed the goats carrot chips and got to touch a cow, camel and a llama.





Of course when she saw the pony rides, she wanted to ride one so we let her.



We went through the Field of Dreams where the kids get a basket and can "pick" an apple, a cucumber and a strawberry to carry around. At the end of the trip, the kids are supposed to hand the basket over to be weighed and then receive money for their goods which they can take into the grocery store and buy an apple. Only problem was that Lilly did not want to give her basket up and would not take the money. When we pried the basket from her grip, she promptly fell on the floor and had a fit. An older man working this part of the exhibit asked who she got that behavior from. I said I did not know - I certainly never act that way!



W thought we could get away with just carrying Lilly or letting her walk but that was not the case. Now last year that was no problem - Joe and I traded who go to wear Lilly on the sling and off we went. We could put her down and she couldn't;t run off as she was not crawling yet. She was a bit tired when we arrived ans was clingy much of the time. She didn't like walking with all the people around (and we weren't that comfortable with that idea ourselves) and so we opted to fork over $8 to rent one of the strollers for the day. It worked great - when we could get Lilly in it. She would want to get out to see something and then we had to fight to get her back in. The majority of the time I ended up holding her. That makes for a VERY LONG day carrying a 23 pound toddler around for 5 hours.




This year Lilly got to eat fair food - she had no teeth during last year's fair. We brought along her usual staple meal for going out - PB&J, veggie and fruit booty. With much coaxing from Daddy, she ate some of it but there was too much to do for her to sit still and eat. Joe got his usual turkey keg - Lilly chewed some of it and then pulled it out of her mouth for us to hold. She did however enjoy the strawberry ice cream for the NC State Vet school, Mommy's frozen banana (I gave her a bite and she refused to let go), fudge sample, hush puppies (she went through the mill tour twice to get hush puppies) and caramel apple. She also enjoyed her apple from the Field of Dreams once she saw Mommy eating it and ripped it away mid-bite.


We all had a grand time and Lilly fell asleep in my arms as we were walking to the car. She saw alot of things but by far her favorite was the giant ostrich over one of the food vendors. She saw that when we first arrived and all day kept asking to go see the ostrich again. She still talks about it as if she saw it today.

Pumpkin Pickin'

We took Lilly to a local pumpkin patch this weekend. She was very excited to go look at pumpkins. With your admission ticket, you got to go on a covered hayride and pick out your own pumpkin, access to a fish and duck feeding pond, view goats and chickens, play on various playground equipment and mazes. Lilly enjoyed the tee-pee. We could not get her to leave it. Every time we would put her down, she would run over to the tee-pee.





Not included in the ticket price were the pony rides. We did not buy a ticket when we got in because we were not sure she would be interested in it. Well she was so I went and got her a ticket. As we were waiting in line, she picked out the white pony as hers and and very innocently told the little boy who was riding the white pony "Boy get off pony." Luckily when it was her turn, we were able to get the white pony. I had some reservations that Lilly would start to cry but she didn't. She had a great time on the pony. She didn't even cry when it was time to get off and we had her say "thank you" to the pony as we left.



We took a covered wagon hayride to the pumpkin patch. Lilly seemed more interested in the tractor and the skull on a man's t-shirt than the hayride on our way to the pumpkin patch. Once the wagon let us off, Lilly headed straight for the pumpkins. She promptly picked one up and threw it to the ground. The poor pumpkin split but Lilly did not seem to care - there were more pumpkins to pick up. She did pretty good picking them up until she discovered that some of them had stickers on them. From then on, all she wanted to do was pick the stickers off one pumpkin and put it on another. The pumpkin that Lilly picked out for herself ended up with 5 stickers in it.


After our pumpkins were picked out, we sat down under a tree so Lilly could eat her lunch. Each time a wagon would come by and drop people off, Lilly wanted to get on it. The ride back to the farm, Lilly actually sat down on the hay and had a look around.

It's Cutting Time

In order to get dinner cooked, Lilly has been helping with the nightly chore. When I ask her if she wants to help me cook, she runs over to the dining chair and starts trying to push it over to the counter. The chair is too heavy and so she ends up shouting "Too heavy." Occasionally she will throw in "Mommy help Lillian chair."

She asked to cut one time so I set her up with her own cutting board and a little plastic knife. She can't actually cut yet - just mash the piece of food to bits, but she thinks she is cutting. It keeps her out of my hair and she is always snacking on the items we are cutting so it has proven to be a good way to get her to eat some veggies that she would refuse if they were offered to her. The other day we were cutting shallots and she kept eating them and requesting more. The child will eat raw shallots and tofu but not a piece of ham or chicken.

She is too cute

Just some cute pictures of Lilly eating her snack after her nap today.

Drinking Games

Lilly (and Daddy and Mommy) had a tough time at the mall over the weekend - Lilly got bit twice and choked by a mean little boy in the play area. On our way home, we stopped by the grocery store pick up dinner. Mommy decided beer was needed because of the trauma we had gone through (grabbing your child from the grips of another toddler and hearing another mom say "He bit her", tracking down the mom/grandma and carrying your wailing child through the mall.)

Cut to Sunday and Lilly was at the table pretending to eat her dinner - she is back on her not eating kick. I had grabbed a beer and joined her while Daddy watched football. Lilly asked what was the green bottle was - actually she said "Who is that?" and I said it's "beer, only grown-ups drink beer." That began the chant of Mommy's beer. Then Lilly said "Mommy drink beer." So Mommy did. That kept up until the beer was gone and Lilly said "Beer gone."

I wonder why they don;t ever have that game listed in those "How to Entertain and Interact with Your Child in a Creative Way" books? It certainly had Lilly and I interacting in a creative way and it kept Daddy entertained listening to us!